Promoting Usage of Library E-Resources Among University Faculty: A User-Centric Approach to Information Literacy in a Developing Country Medical School

Background: Academic libraries are an integral part of the university and remains the hub for learning, teaching and research. Tools for accessing library resources have been remarkably transformed by the Internet. Availability of electronic resources ushered in new attitudes by the library users. The number of faculty that visit the library has reduced drastically, many rely on the internet for needed information, this, called for urgent action by librarians. The aim of this outreach user centric program was to sensitize and teach faculty how to search, and retrieve reliable up-to-date information from databases, Research4Life resources, digital archives, and institutional repositories..

Description: E. Latunde Odeku Medical Library, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, is the oldest and the largest health sciences Library in Nigeria. It was established in 1966 and named after the first African neurosurgeon, Professor E. Latunde Odeku. The library provides biomedical literature resources in support of teaching, learning and research in the health sciences and related fields

Intervention: In 2014, the Library, designed an information literacy (IL) user centric program targeting faculty members. Training contents included information sources/resources, list of databases accessible through the Library, information searching tools, techniques, and citation and referencing using Mendeley reference manager. The training was conducted in the departments from 2014-2019; four librarians facilitated the training yearly in 26 Departments. Letters were written by the Library and sent to departments to schedule convenient date that the librarians can deliver the training. A questionnaire was administered to faculty to illicit demographic information as well as use of electronic resources. The program was evaluated using key informant interviews.

Results: A total of 350 faculty members were trained, 252 completed and returned the questionnaire. Two third (64.0%) were males, 54.0% were within the age of 30-35 years. Majority (88.4%) are aware of availability of electronic resources in the Library. Key informant interviews with 20 faculty revealed that literature searching skills, retrieval and use of e-resources - was enhanced by the training.
Conclusion: The user centric program brought significant turnarounds for the Library. The program saw library and librarians as agents of change and partners in capacity development. Value of library was established; librarians earned more recognition. Also, awareness about resources in the Library and skill sets of librarians in support of teaching, research, and patient care was revealed to the faculty. It was observed that faculty contacted librarians more on phone, email while others visited the Library with questions.